CHAPTER 1: The Yellow
In the year 3025, humanity had moved on from disease and to explore space, but the good days shattered when Earth’s waters turned into something unexpected. With no science to back it up, panic spread at a planetary level. A super team of experts came together to find a solution, only to stumble upon something far more alien than they imagined.
Not all invasions begin with a conflict.
It was the year 3025. Bright Neo-Manhattan and its glowing holographic billboards beamed through the chilly autumn fog. Today marked one hundred years since the scientific breakthroughs that freed humanity from ‘diseases’. It was hard to imagine that our ancestors once spent their lives battling conditions that slowly destroyed their bodies. Now, people invested their energy and intellect into living life on their own terms, while scientists had largely turned their focus to space exploration. Humans continued their work in gratitude, honoring those who came before them and the knowledge and struggle that made this life possible.
Space shuttles were a routine transport, piercing the blue sky, ferrying citizens to exoplanets and the newly settled lunar colonies. Life, by all accounts, was flourishing.
Then the yellow tide began.
It started low, with a faint ochre tinge in the community water farms. Within days, the change was undeniable. The waters of the meticulously controlled ecosystems had transformed into a viscous, saffron-hued liquid. The news spread and the population, even though advanced, could not be calm. Panic rippled through the boroughs as news feeds displayed the horrifying reports from across the globe. First were the farms, then came The Great Lakes, the mighty Mississippi, and even the glacial melt in Alaska. All succumbing to this bizarre discoloration. It was coming for the drinking water next. Governments around the world began taking measures to seal off potable water sources and water treatment plants. The yellow water had no effect on animals or lab rats. It was then tested on criminals in the prisons, first with patch tests on their skin and body parts, then by making them drink it. No effects were found. It was like regular water, just yellow in color. It did turn their urine magenta, but kidney function tests remained normal.
The scientific teams studied all the samples of the yellow water, but in vain. The yellow tinge showed no similarities to any known living microorganism, nor did it have a discernible chemical structure. It was just a clump of yellow.
A week had passed. Water sources were becoming contaminated. Earth was turning yellow. Satellite footage and space shots showed the planet shifting to shades of yellow and green. Although no harmful effects had been identified yet, the mystery was unsettling enough to keep every human awake at night. Reports began to emerge of people in poorer regions resorting to drinking the yellow water. They had no choice. Blue, or rather, clear water had become a luxury.
Dr. Lena Hanson, a biotechnologist on the core investigation team at the North American Research Institute, was working on one such sample. All standard tests had been run, multiple times, yet yielded nothing. The team had now turned to the old ‘paper’ books. Paper books existed eight or nine decades ago, although old, they were the last hope for any chemistry sense left to uncover the yellow junk.
Dr. Lena came across a non-specific spectral analysis technique and decided to try it. Her brow furrowed in disbelief as the results appeared. The molecular structure was finally stained and observable. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. She called everyone over to her computer.
“This… this isn’t a chemical pollutant. It’s… organic? But, the carbon and hydrogen branches shift every two seconds. Even the double bonds are changing positions,” she said aloud to her team. It was a complex molecule and very alien in its composition.
“Amazing and so weird!” Director Miles Corbin’s voice broke the silence, startling Lena. They immediately called the President, and his holographic projection appeared from the comms pod.
“It’s a dynamic molecule, Director,” Dr. Lena explained. “But it’s not of terrestrial origin. Its molecular structure keeps shifting, and there are two elements in the branches that we’ve never even theorized, some kind of unknown metals.”
“Now what next? Why is it only affecting the water?” the President asked. Lena zoomed in on a section of the analytical readout, “It’s altering the hydrogen-oxygen bond, weakening it and attaching itself as a branch. And as we’re seeing, it’s turning the water from clear to yellow. We still don’t know what that means for us.”
The President’s holographic image looked visibly troubled. Without a parting word, he cut the connection. He had to. The implications were still unknown. Earth, our blue planet, was now facing an existential crisis on a planetary scale. They needed to act fast.
Within hours, the Global Crisis Council convened at the international headquarters. Director Miles had informed the newfound information to the scientific heads of other countries. It was no longer a race of who will fix it first, rather a fix-it-asap kind of a situation. Theories flew thick and fast: A contamination from space travels, biological warfare by extra-terrestrials, or even a bizarre evolutionary phenomenon. But Dr. Lena’s analysis held the most weight.
“I believe,” President stated, with a steady voice, “now that we have its structure and know that it’s alien, we need to find the source, trace every site. Go back to the sites where this first started. Find the source, meanwhile send teams and messages to other solar systems to gather information on this compound.”
The room fell silent. The speed and uniformity of the contamination pointed to a single, widespread source. The council had no other ideas than to agree to the information at hand and then Director Miles was tasked to lead the teams that will visit the sites and develop a countermeasure.
They assembled a Manhattan Super Team: Dr. Kenji Tanaka, a bioengineer; two biochemists; a physician; and Jax, an interplanetary travel expert with a knack for the unconventional. The first site to report the issue was in Alaska, and Dr. Lena was asked to accompany the team. Dr. Tanaka and Lena would focus on collecting samples and reverse-engineer anything they could. The biochemists would analyze the contamination and search for weaknesses in the containment systems. The physician would monitor the team for any health effects during their visits. Jax would be the first to explore the affected sites, gathering fresh information and identifying things that resembled anything he had encountered on other planets.
Their initial investigations focused on enzyme analysis by Dr. Tanaka and Jax calling his friends on other planets to ask about similar incidents. Time was running out. Then finally they found a lead. It was Jax, who had a friend on Planet Qti, who told him about a similar incident that gripped their waters before, but it was a gloomy purple. Jax requested her to send as much available data on the action plan that was mapped to tackle that situation. Jax and the biochemist also unearthed a series of anomalous energy signatures, detected just days before the first reports of yellow water. They originated from a remote, uninhabited region of the Gwin ice sheet in Alaska.
“A landing site,” Jax concluded, pointing to a thermal anomaly on the satellite imagery. “I’ve seen something like this before. A big thing came and landed on our planet and powered down quickly. How did anyone not catch that! How is that even possible? What year is it? 2025? We have all types of surveillance, and still!” Jax blasted in anger. Lena standing next to him, felt a cold dread grip her. An alien presence. On Earth. Spreading this silent, insidious plague. “Why?” Lena spoke low and shook. “Guess we have to find that out,” quipped Jax.
Preparing to visit the site, they packed their bags with essentials, handheld meters, tactical medicine kits, sample ampules, and of course ammunition. Their transport was a defense grade atmospheric flyer named The P2, that sliced through the skies faster that any air vehicle in the planet. With all of them seated and buckled up, and Jax as the pilot and Dr. Lena as the co-pilot, they head off to the Gwin ice sheet. Dr. Tanaka handled the in-flight analysis. Soon they arrived a few miles away from the site. The landscape below was thousands of miles of white ice, consumed by the strange, sick yellow, which interestingly was spread out in irregular patches. They came closer to the exact coordinates, about a mile away and land the flyer. Jax speaks out, “Put on your masks all of you.” No one questioned him as everyone was clueless, and Jax and Dr. Lena got off the ship, while Dr. Tanaka stayed back with the others for live analysis.
The landing site wasn’t distinct in any way, but as the energy signature on the instrument indicated, both moved in that direction. They noticed the yellow deepening as they moved further, and the solid ice began to look more powdery in texture on the surface, like turmeric powder spilled across the ground. They walked about a quarter of a mile toward the signal.
Suddenly, Jax spotted something gray. “What is that?” he exclaimed as he broke into a run, puffing and rushing forward. Dr. Lena ran behind him, trying to catch up and see what had caught his attention. There, partially buried in the yellow powdery ice, lay the twisted remnants of a vessel, metallic alloys bent and warped, barely distinguishable from their surroundings. It was clearly a spaceship and they were in its landing site.
“The landing might have been abrupt. Maybe even a crash,” Jax said, scanning the wreckage. “This isn’t even aerodynamically sound. What the…” Dr. Lena stopped mid-sentence. “It is. I’ve seen some of these in pictures,” Jax replied, “I’ll go in first. You stay back, just in case.”
He approached the door as Dr. Lena leaned in toward the vessel’s exterior, staying alert and examining the surface. Her eyes caught what looked like a red round button, oddly placed but so obvious to the eye. She called out to Jax, but he was already inside and didn’t hear her. She hesitated, placing her hand beside the button. A sudden, unbearable itch crept through her gloved thumb. She couldn’t resist and pressed the red button.
A sharp hiss echoed from the vessel, piercing their eardrums. Lena began coughing. Moments later, Jax stumbled out, coughing as well. Something sweet, honey scented had leaked from the vessel. The gas seeped in through their masks and tingled their noses.
END OF CHAPTER 1.
Chapter 2 coming soon…
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